By IANS
Bangalore : No firm representing manufacturing and services sectors in India qualified for the prestigious ‘Award for Business Excellence 2007’ instituted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Export-Import (Exim) Bank of India, a top confederation official said here Friday.
“Of the 200 public and private sector firms that were assessed for the quality awards, including the CII-Exim award, 40 were shortlisted by the jury after evaluating their practices and processes,” K.N. Shenoy, CII Institute of Quality chairman, told IANS on the sidelines of the 15th quality summit.
“Of them, 25 qualified for ‘Certification for Excellence’ award and 10 for ‘Significant Achievement’ award but none for the top award,” he said.
The ‘Award for Excellence’ was jointly set up by CII and Exim Bank in 1994 with a view to enhancing the competitiveness of India Inc. It is based on the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model for excellence.
In the last 13 years, only seven firms, including three from the Tata group, have qualified for the top award, which consists of a trophy to highlight the three facets of excellence – people, processes and quality.
“The standards and parameters to qualify for the top award are so stringent that the panel could not choose any one of the 10 firms which made it to the second best award – a significant achievement – though a couple of them came close to the benchmark of excellence,” Shenoy said.
The excellence model is benchmarked against the universally accepted standards and practices prevalent the world over, including the US Malcolm Baldrige national quality award, Japan quality award and Australian quality award. Apart from recognition, the model provides a holistic management framework to achieve excellence.
From Tata group, India’s largest IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata Motors Ltd bagged the top award in 2006 and 2005 respectively. Tata Iron & Steel Co Ltd won the excellence award in 2000.
The other winners were Infosys Technologies Ltd (2002), Maruti Udyog Ltd (1998) and Hewlett Packard (India) Ltd in 1997.
Unlike the previous years, the panel also did not select any company for the ‘Prize’ award, which is ranked second. The Haridwar unit of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) was the winner in 2006.
The jury comprised Exim Bank executive director S.R. Rao, CII director-general Lt. Gen (Retd) S.S. Mehta, Godrej & Boyce chairman & managing director J.N. Godrej, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) N.R. Vittal, Infosys Chief Executive Officer S. Gopalakrishnan and Shenoy.